Joe Bear

I have a son, named Joseph...we call him Joe Bear.  When he was 8 months old or so he sounded like a baby bear and when you would hold him close he would hold on like a baby bear, and his skin is a beautiful brown color...unlike the rest of the white people who live here.  He gets this from his very Greek Grandmother.  He has huge eyes, and tucks his lips in, the most adorable way.  He can work around his mother, and frequently finds himself in big trouble, as his curious nature brings trouble his way.  When he was only 3 he fell in love with vacuums.  He couldn't believe after plugging it in that it would make the most marvelous noise and suck up dirt from the floor and we had several.  He had a red dirt devil that he would cart from room to room.  He especially made his Aunt Tiea nervous with the plugs.  He was fascinated by the whole process.  When he was 4 he turned by new environmental vacuum over and stuck his thumb in the roller while it was in motion.  It skinned him and he had a dripping wound for 6 weeks or so.  He really injured himself, a degloving and has the scar to prove it.  Last month while my eldest son was swinging from a rope swing that goes over a 20 foot drop off, Joe thought he should pull an Indian Jones and jump off catching the rope, he hung on until the swing passed over the drop off and did a flip mid air and landed flat on his belly scaring his Aunt, cousins, and mother half to death.  He has no idea that he is travelling too fast on his bike...(break neck speed).  And he thinks that our sitter Nicky is out of her mind because she will  not let him ride his bike on the cement, only on the grass.  She has full understanding of what he is capable of.  Joe recently burned his index finger with a match, he found a small box of matches and squirrelled it away until the perfect moment, and even had his sister, (the narc) sworn to secrecy.  Joe also rolled up a band aide and stuck it up his nose.  Why?  His nose was itching.  After a trip to the ED, they couldn't get it out, an appt with the ENT doctor to remove it with a scope was scheduled for the next day.  The following morning it was laying on his pillow, he had sneezed it out during the night.  Joe has been know to hide sweet n low packets under his pillow, and snacks on these as needed.  He has forgotten about more trouble than most know, and when you correct him he looks honestly sorry, but would do it again in one hot minute.  My Joe is a living testimony of prayer.  He is now six years old and has notified his father and I that he does not want to be in first grade that we should send Gracie his younger sister instead.  Since we home school our children, he will have to belly up to the school table late August with the rest of his siblings.  My job is to keep him in one piece for the summer.  This keeps me on my knees.